


Only the Good...

by jetreadsstuff



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Comedy, Courtroom Drama, Dark, Drama, F/F, F/M, Murder Mystery, Slow Burn, murder investigation, trans girl caroline forbes, trans girl stefan salvatore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 17:55:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetreadsstuff/pseuds/jetreadsstuff
Summary: Caroline Forbes is a prosecutor. Her current case is the easiest she's ever had. The defendant, Tyler Lockwood, has no case. The weapon, a steak knife, was found with his fingerprints in his apartment's air duct and all. She'll have no trouble proving her old friend guilty. The problem is, for a case of a man murdering his best friend, it's way too clean. People don't just snap and kill their friends. This requires planning. She feels like it's a frame job. So she hires a P.I., a publicly disgraced one at that, to look into the case. The detective, one Stef Salvatore is confused, but she can see that Caroline is clearly distraught and only trying to do the right thing. Can the two solve the case? Or will Mystic Falls ultimately punish the wrong guy?
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Stefan Salvatore, Minor Tyler Lockwood/Liv Parker
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Only the Good...

“There’s a man standing in my office,” Caroline says.

“I know that,” Esther replies. Her long nails click as she types.

“Who is he?” Caroline asks.

“He says he’s a family friend,” this time, Esther looks up from the computer. She doesn’t always do that. 

“And you let him in without asking me,” it’s meant to sound like a question, but her tone reflects that of a parent scolding their child.

“Was that not okay?” Esther asks, “I know that you said to let family members in immediately.”

“Family friends are different from family, Esther,” Caroline points out, “for all we know, he could be a fan who just wanted to meet me. He could be lying.”

“He says he’s from Mystic Falls,” Esther answers.

Caroline’s stomach flips. She is a high-profile prosecutor. But her hometown, anything about her that goes back more than ten years, is not public record. Either it really is a family friend, or she has a stalker.

“You want me to get rid of him?” Esther asks.

“No, that’s okay,” Caroline says. She approaches her office. Her office has glass windows, but they’re frosted, and therefore useless. She counts the weapons she has on her person. Nails. Teeth. Briefcase. Car keys. She opens the door.

It startles the man in the office, who flinches and turns around. Holy shit. Holy  _ shit _ . 

“Jeremy?” she asks.

“Hi, Care,” Jeremy smiles at her. 

“Wh. It’s good to see you,” Caroline pulls him into a hug. It’s very stiff, “what are you doing in Manhattan?” 

“Well,” Jeremy clears his throat, looks down, “I’m sure you’ve heard about Matt by now.”

She had. Monday morning, she’d gotten a call from Bonnie Bennett informing her that Matt had passed away. She had work that morning. She cried at Starbucks on her way and cleaned herself up in the car.

“I have,” she answers plainly. 

“Then you know Tyler Lockwood is being tried for it,” he says. 

Caroline nods.

“What brings you by, Jeremy?” she asks.

“Well,” he reaches into his bag, a torn-up messenger bag that Caroline thought she’d seen the last of at Christmas when he burned the edge of it on Elena’s curling iron.

He pulls out a folder. A thin, yellow folder. Uh oh.

“I wanted you to take a look,” Jeremy says, handing it to her.

“Jer-”

“I just want you to take a look at it,” he says.

“That’s not true. If you just wanted me to look at it, you would have emailed it to me. You want me to work the case,” she accuses.

“Well...yeah,” Jeremy admits.

Caroline lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Just read it before you turn it down,” he pleads.

Caroline worries her lip.

“Fine,” she says. She sits down. The case is short. Very short.

_ Case File: _

_ Tyler Lockwood _

_ Overview:  _

_ On Monday, January tenth, 35-year-old Matthew Donovan’s body was found in his apartment. He was stabbed fifteen times in the chest and neck. On February thirteenth, Tyler Lockwood will be tried for his murder. _

_ Crime scene:  _

_ The murder was committed between the hours of eight and eleven pm in Matthew Donovan’s studio apartment. He was killed with a steak knife, which was missing from Donovan’s knife set. Blood splattered all over the walls of the apartment due to the severance of the carotid artery. With the placement of the wounds and the interruption of the blood spray, the autopsy determined that these could not have been self-inflicted wounds. There were bruises on his left wrist, suggesting a struggle. There was no sign of forced entry at the scene. _

_ Suspects: _

_ The main suspect in this case is Tyler Lockwood, son of Mystic Falls’s mayor, Carol Lockwood. The two were close friends. They met in kindergarten and remained close. He was the last person to be seen with Matthew Donovan. _

_ There are no other suspects at this time. _

_ Evidence: _

_ The steak knife used to kill Matthew Donovan was found in Lockwood’s apartment, behind a loose heating vent and covered in his fingerprints. He has no alibi, and Donovan’s upstairs neighbor heard Lockwood and Donovan engaged in a verbal argument, during which both were very angry with each other. The two have a history of fights, and it is possible that one small argument could have escalated. Lockwood’s fingerprints were found across the apartment.  _

_ Conclusion:  _

_ Tyler Lockwood will be tried on February thirteenth. Until then, he is being held in the local jail. The motive is unclear. However, the evidence overwhelmingly points to Tyler Lockwood being guilty. _

There are photographs attached to the file. They make Caroline want to throw up.

“Well?” Jeremy asks.

“With all due respect,” she places the case file neatly on the desk, “your case is airtight.”

“That’s with all due respect?” Jeremy raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t need a great attorney,” she continues, “you don’t even need a very good one. Hell, put on a sport coat, you could make the damn case yourself.’

“All due respect to you,” Jeremy puts a hand on her desk and, spotting her icy glare as he does so, swiftly removes it, “but I don’t want just any lawyer. I want you.”

“Yes, but why?” Caroline’s exasperation is quickly growing, “Jeremy, I work a lot of high-profile murder cases.”

“I know that,” he says.

“I don’t work just any case that crosses my desk, and this, my personal attachment to the case aside, is a simple murder case.”

“I know,” Jeremy repeats.

“And speaking of my personal attachment, that alone is enough to make me turn down the case. Me prosecuting my ex-boyfriend doesn’t look super great,” she points out.

“It’s Matt,” Jeremy says.

“Jer,” Caroline sighs, rubbing her temple, “I loved Matt. He was my best friend.”

“Yeah, but you guys dated, too. Matt was your first boyfriend.”

“So?” 

“So, your stupid conflict of interest is gone. If you going out with Tyler seventeen years ago is enough to make it a conflict of interest, and you breaking up with Matt is also a conflict of interest-”

“Point, Gilbert. Make it.”

“You have no real motive to make Tyler pay with Matt also being your ex and all,” he says, “not in the public eye, anyway.”

“You still haven’t answered my question, though,” Caroline leans forward, “being why you want me to represent your case.”

Jeremy’s warm demeanor fades.

“To keep it in the family,” he answers, “look. If I was a lawyer, and you weren’t, who would you want to represent this case? Me, or a stranger?”

“Jeremy-”

“Just that one question, Caroline. I’ll walk right back through that door and you can see me at Christmas. You’ve just gotta answer me.”

She considers.

“Of course I’d want you on the case,” she admits, “what kind of stupid fucking question is that?”

“Then you see why this is so important to me,” Jeremy picks up the case file, “thanks.”

He turns to leave.

“Wait,” Caroline says. He does.

“I’ll work the case.”

He smiles at her.

“I’ll call you.”

* * *

It takes a couple of days to get everything at work taken care of. Caroline misses the funeral. She misses the city memorial service. She does not, however, miss the interview she very reluctantly allowed Elena. 

Elena is a very compassionate person. Caroline doesn’t buy for even a second that she would do this interview if her job hadn’t demanded it. Nevertheless, Caroline braces herself for awful questions. It’s part of the job. But she’s never had a case like this. 

Elena sits down across from her, notepad ready and recorder running. 

“Caroline Forbes is a well-respected lawyer who resides in New York City. She fits in well in Manhattan. However, most don’t know that she grew up right here, in Mystic Falls. She has returned to town to work this case,” Elena always records her introduction, too. It’s better to hear it out loud. Make sure it sounds natural and all.

Caroline anxiously drums her fingers on the wood surface of the table.

“Caroline, is it true you were friends with both Tyler Lockwood and Matt Donovan?” Elena asks.

She knows it’s true. She could have just said that in the stupid introduction.

“I’ve known them both my whole life,” Caroline says. She’s aware that’s not really an answer.

“Is it upsetting to work on this case given your history with both the victim and the accused?”

Jesus Christ.

“I actually haven’t gotten to work on my case quite yet. Reviewing the murder report, however, was very upsetting,” Caroline replies.

She’s read the case no less than a hundred times in the last couple of days. She’s become utterly infatuated with it. Perhaps a coping mechanism of sorts?

“Did the news of someone you’ve known for so long being the primary suspect shock you?”

Not really. Mystic Falls is a sleepy town, sure. But it does house some grizzly murders. Caroline’s father was murdered in the city hospital by one of the high school’s teachers.

What does surprise Caroline is the simplicity of the murder. Growing up, you never heard normal crimes here. It was always shit like “cannibal youth pastor hangs churchgoers on meat hooks.” 

“Yes. I could never have imagined this happening,” that is true, even though she doesn’t mean it in the way Elena is asking.

The interview goes on like that for forty-five more minutes. Caroline begins to wonder if this is her purgatory when Elena suddenly stops the recording.

“Thanks,” Elena says, “I know that was probably pretty uncomfortable for you.”

“How’d you guess?” 

Elena sighs.

“Some welcome home, huh?” Elena asks.

“I live in the city,” Caroline replies, “I’ve had worse greetings.”

Elena doesn’t reply.

“I’m not gonna use all of your quotes,” she says.

“Okay,” Caroline grabs the half-and-half on the table.

“So,” Elena leans forward, “do you know where you’re staying?”

Caroline wants to answer that of course, of course, she knows where she’s staying. Thing is, she doesn’t. She realizes she had been subconsciously assuming she’d stay at her mother’s. But she hasn’t been back in that house.

“I’ll probably grab a room at the inn,” she answers finally.

“Are there vacancies?” Elena asks.

“It’s the Mystic Falls Inn. There’s always vacancies,” Caroline says.

“If you want,” Elena starts, “you can stay with me.”

“No thanks,” Caroline stands.

“Are you sure? I’ve got plenty of room here. Jenna and Jeremy have both gotten their own places-”

“It’s too weird,” Caroline says.

“It’s too weird?” Elena repeats.

“I’m helping your brother prosecute my ex-boyfriend. That’s already weird enough. We’re not adding to that,” Caroline huffs.

“Okay,” Elena says, “I just thought you might be more comfortable staying with a friend.”

“Bonnie runs the Inn,” Caroline points out, “I  _ am _ staying with a friend.”

Her tone is a bit sharper than she means it to be. Elena blinks at her.

“Call me if you need anything,” she says.

“I will,” Caroline nods. 

* * *

Bonnie isn’t there when she gets to the inn. She asks the concierge where she is. He says that she’s taking a personal day. As Caroline suspected, there are vacancies.

She shuts herself in her suite and off from the world as best as she can. Her phone remains in her suitcase as she takes other essentials out. Conditioner. Body wash. Pajamas. The case file. 

The inn serves food, and you’re not really supposed to order takeout to it, but Bonnie isn’t there to adhere to the rules and Caroline is feeling hot wings. There’s DVDs in the cabinet to the TV stand. You’re supposed to put them back downstairs when you check out. Nobody does. Caroline selects a movie and reads over the case a couple more times before the disc runs out of previews.

She isn’t surprised that Matt and Tyler got into it. What she’s surprised over was the weapon. She can picture Tyler clubbing someone over the head with a bat before she can picture him  _ stabbing  _ someone. It’s all very strange. What also strikes her as odd is that there’s no clear motive. Sure they argued often, loudly. 

But she just can’t picture an argument that they could keep quiet enough that nobody knew what it was, but dramatic enough that Tyler simply grabbed a steak knife and went to town. Bile rises in her throat. Ugh, enough of that.

She leans her head against the wall. It’s so strange to her, the circumstances. She can’t picture it. Tyler has a temper, she knows that. But the method? The motive?

She recalls a conversation with him in high school about how each of them would hypothetically get away with murder. It was a stupid first date question. She asked everyone that. She mentioned dissolving the body with lye and putting the weapon back where she found it. Burying the body underneath the corpse of a rodent, so that if a search dog found it they would assume it was a false alarm. Tyler said if he was going to kill somebody, he’d probably skip town and throw the weapon into the Atlantic ocean.

But he’d never kill anyone, he clarified. He was just answering her perverse and strange first date question. 

In the air vent, she thought. Not even bolted to the wall properly.  _ Idiot.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to quote myself, long ago: "I'll die before I write vampire diaries fanfiction"  
> oops.   
> Blame my girlfriend for this. You're welcome arling. go fuck yourself<3


End file.
